Obama Shows How to Defang the Christian Right in a Week
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Is it just me, or in the course of the last week has Barack Obama pretty masterfully neutralized the Christian right campaign to paint him as a lefty bogeyman?
Consider:
1. The president-elect's invitation to Rick Warren, the most influential evangelical in the nation, to give the invocation at his inauguration, and Obama's decision to firmly stand by the choice even after the outcry it generated among gays and on the left.
2. Obama's invitation to James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the nation's most politically powerful evangelical concern, to participate in a national day of service.
3. The high marks Obama has been receiving this week from traditional Christian right leaders. Check out the interview that Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson gave to CNN's Suzanne Malveaux yesterday (transcript courtesy of the Huffington Post):
MALVEAUX: Are you looking forward to an Obama administration? A change?
ROBERTSON: I am remarkably pleased with Obama. I had grave misgivings about him. But so help me, he's come in forcefully, intelligently. He's picked a middle of the road cabinet. And so far, if he continues down this course, he has the makings of a great president . . . I'm very pleased so far.
Compare that with Robertson's take on George W. Bush:
ROBERTSON: Well, it's hard to assess blame, but I—over the years—I hate to be critical, I mean I am a Republican, and this is the president of the party that I'm a member of—but I think we've had some serious goofs along the way. The Katrina matter was terrible. The rebuilding of Iraq has been terrible. The hailing of the economy right now has been terrible. It hasn't been handled in what I would consider a professional manner.
MALVEAUX: How would you grade the president in light of all of the—the laundry list that you just listed there?
ROBERTSON: Well you know, history may accord him a higher grade than his contemporaries and I think he's hoping for that, and we are. But I believe I would look at about a C-minus right now if I were grading him.
And check out the very conservative Rev. Franklin Graham giving Obama some props in a new interview at Christianity Today's web site:
The people on the left are not going to support any relationship with people on the other side. Barack Obama has shown he's going to reach across these boundaries. He is including evangelicals at his inauguration, but I don't know if he'll include them in his administration. Time will tell. But Rick Warren will have Obama's ear on important issues.
For a culture warrior like Graham, that's a rousing Obama endorsement. The Christian right has got to be strategizing about how to counter Obama's evangelical charm offensive. At the moment, Obama appears to have largely defanged the movement.
- Read more about Rick Warren at Obama's inauguration.
- Read more by Dan Gilgoff.
Tags: Barack Obama | religion | Christianity | James Dobson | conservatives | Rick Warren
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Reader Comments
obama and evangelicals
Obama is trying to play both sides of the fence.
He clearly has no true Biblical beliefs.
He attended Wright's 'hate - black supremacy church' for over 20 years
He believes Gays can have a civil union
He believes in abortion (murder of babies in utero)
His mother was an atheist and father was a muslim so I don't think he had any firm foundation from his parents.
In case you didn't know - Allah is not the same God that the Judeo Christians believe in
He will be accountable before God for not standing for the Truth in the Bible
Gay Rights
Responding to Whitefield of CT, none of those quotes are by Jesus. The first two are from Paul, the second the Old Testament. Leviticus 18 is part of the Holiness Code (chapters 17-26), which was designed to call Israel to live differently than her neighbors. This code, which also requires all farmers to leave a portion of their fields to the poor (19:9-10), states anyone who plants fruit trees, may not eat of them until the fifth year (19:23-25), anyone who curses mother or father shall be put to death (20:9); anyone who commits adultery (both the man and woman) shall be put to death (20:10). No priest shall go where there is a dead body, even if it is his own mother or father (21:11). (You could argue that you cannot keep leftovers beyond the second day! 19:5-8)
The point of all this is that you cannot take a verse here and there; you take them all, or you take none. And for Christians, the words of Jesus trump the OT texts (at the least, they require restatement and reinterpretation in light of the cross), and Jesus did not say anything about homosexuality.
In the two texts cited, by Paul, the Corinthians texts points out a whole list of those who will be condemned, including the greedy! It behooves all of us to mend our ways, lest we be included in that list! And the Romans text points out that all who turn from God are condemned. The text probably discusses the current perversions of all types which were found in the Greek society of Paul's time. The point of the text is that all who turn from God are destroyed through their own actions; not just those who practice homosexual actions (this text says nothing about homosexuality as an orientation, but only as action)
As a last comment, from one who is not gay, the understanding of what it means to be homosexual is changing. The biblical view, that homosexuality is the willful, sinful actions of heterosexual people, (ie, what went on in Sodom and Gomorrah), which is reflective of its time, is no longer the only understanding of homosexuality, and there is developing homosexuality understood as something at least latent in people, much like left- or right-handedness is. Science (which is also a gift of God!) is beginning to understand the biological involvement of genetics in homosexuality.
Jesus on homosexuality
Whitefield of CT says it is "wrong, wrong, wrong" to claim Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. He then quotes I Corinthians, Romans, and Leviticus. These are written by Paul the Apostle and (it is believed) by Moses. Not by Jesus. Nor do they quote Jesus.
Whatever the other books of the Bible may say, it remains true that Jesus never spoke about homosexuality - at least not in any canonical text.
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